NEWARK – City Councilman Mike Bucci is resigning before the tip of his third term because he can not afford to live in the town he represents.
Bucci, who describes himself as “the most handsome eyepatch-wearing city council member ever,” doesn't rule out leaving town entirely if his luck changes.
“I play the lottery twice a week,” he said on Friday, describing it as a final resort.
But Bucci will likely move out of Newark because he desires to buy a house. He plans to maneuver to Oxnard in Ventura County.
Bucci said his salary at a construction company in San Leandro, even combined along with his roughly $13,000 annual salary as a city councilman, was nowhere near enough to search out a good home for his wife and daughter in Newark.
He said his landlord recently died and although his relatives haven’t any plans to sell the home he lives in any time soon, “I can't take any risks. We live in a house that's worth millions.”
Mayor Mike Hannon was saddened but not surprised by Bucci's resignation letter, which he sent Wednesday. He understands, and remembers how different the Bay Area real estate market was when his family left their rental property in 1985 and located their first home here, which they bought with family help.
“The magnitude in dollar amounts is just significantly higher,” he said. “I know that many young couples are able to buy homes because they make sacrifices. The difficulties remain more or less the same.”
Homes in Newark now cost greater than one million dollars – or almost that much, Bucci said.
Before his resignation, Bucci, 47, had posted on social media that he and his wife, who works for the Dublin San Ramon Services District, had tried unsuccessfully several times in recent times to purchase a house with a $60,000 down payment and a credit rating of 785, he wrote.
“We've tried over the years. We've tried a lot,” he said in an interview. “It was never enough. And a bank won't give you a loan that's worth more than your house. There's nothing you can do about it… It's heartbreaking. And at some point you just throw in the towel.”
He said he’s now moving to Oxnard along with his wife and daughter right into a family-owned two-bedroom condo where his grandmother currently lives.
“This is the best option for us,” Bucci said. “It's difficult because we don't have a life there. Our life is here. But the truth is that our whole family left here.”
The councilman publicly identified on social media what he believed to be the most cost effective house on the town: a Twenties home on Olive Street with an asking price of $999,000 and old cars, trash and garbage outside. He estimated he wouldn’t have the ability to repay the mortgage for years.
“I just had to be honest with myself… Is it worth killing myself to pay off a mortgage that's worth more than both of our salaries?” Bucci asked. “I'll probably be dead before my 77th birthday and my poor wife would be stuck with it and probably have to sell it at some point anyway.”
Or, he bets, he could afford something cheaper he saw on Facebook Marketplace: a 29-foot 1996 Winnebago Minnie Winnie with a Ford F350 Super Duty 7.4-liter V8 engine and a kitchenette, bedroom and living area.
“Even though you know you can't win, sometimes you just have to fight the good fight, man,” Bucci said. “It sucks, man. I'm not having fun right now.”
Since his election in 2014, he has helped open the town's latest civic center, which incorporates a brand new city hall, police station and library, in addition to the town's first dog park and skate park.
The Newark City Council will accept applications to fill Bucci's position until July 5. The council will then hold a special meeting on July 8 to contemplate the brand new applicants.
Regarding Bucci's tenure as city councilor, Hannon said, “Hopefully when he looks back, he will look back with affection and pride.”
image credit : www.mercurynews.com